By James Irwin
A milestone announcement regarding Making History: The Campaign for GW, a resolution honoring a late university trustee and presentations on student health and wellness and faculty governance highlighted a busy agenda at Friday’s meeting of the university Board of Trustees.
Eight months into the public phase of Making History—the largest philanthropic campaign in GW’s nearly 200-year history—the university has raised more than $700 million, George Washington President Steven Knapp said in remarks at the board’s open session, which also included the announcement of Aristide Collins being named vice president for development and alumni relations.
More than 50,000 donors have contributed to the campaign, which began with a quiet phase in July 2011 and went public last June. In fiscal year 2014, the more than 550 members of the university's 18 advisory councils contributed more than $17.7 million in gifts to GW, Laura Taddeucci Downs, B.A. ’92, M.A. ’95, chair of the Council of Chairs, said Friday.
"The purpose of a campaign is not just to hit a goal, but to ratchet up the level of activity in fundraising across the institution to a new plateau from which we can ascend even further," Dr. Knapp said. "We need those funds in order to continue to serve our students, serve the nation and serve the world. That’s the purpose of the campaign."
The meeting began on a somber note with an announcement of the passing of David A. Nadler, B.A. ’70, who served as a university trustee from 2011 to 2015 and was a member of the Elliott School of International Affairs International Advisory Council.
“David Nadler was an unbelievable person and a great friend and counselor to me as well, and I know to many of us on the board,” Board of Trustees Chair Nelson Carbonell, B.S. ’85, said. “We’ll miss him dearly.”
In a roundup of university activities over the past four months, Dr. Knapp and several university leaders highlighted campus events and developments, including the January installation of Lynn Goldman as the Michael and Lori Milken Dean of Public Health, the women’s basketball team’s ascension into the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and the hiring of Pamela R. Jeffries as the new dean of the School of Nursing.
The university’s Faculty Senate continues to work with the board on an assessment of faculty governance, said Charles Garris, chair of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. The senate recently received draft recommendations from faculty governance working groups, part of a collaborative process to make changes to the faculty code and organization plan.
“One of the things I feel good about is the board and the faculty share the same goals,” Dr. Garris said. “We want to expand faculty participation and governance. We want to improve the appointment tenure and promotion process so as to recruit and retain the very best faculty. We want to improve administrative search processes and procedures.”
Vice Provost and Dean of Student Affairs Peter Konwerski emphasized the return on investing in student resources—like the Colonial Health Center—in remarks to the board on Friday (William Atkins/GW Today).
The board approved tuition rates for the 2015-16 academic year during its closed session, guaranteeing no tuition increase for returning undergraduate students. Incoming undergraduate students will see a slight increase, a portion of which will help fund university health resources.
Two campus construction projects are nearing completion, Dr. Knapp said, with Science and Engineering Hall and the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum due to open in March.
“It’s going to become an unparalleled asset for us to continue to recruit very strong students who are interested in spending their educational time in the sciences and engineering,” he said of the SEH. “[And] if you haven’t had a chance to tour [the museum], I think you will be impressed and delighted and proud that we’ve been able to add something quite so beautiful to the heart of our campus.”
The most recent new campus facility, Dr. Knapp said, is the Colonial Health Center, which opened in January after a two-year effort to enhance health and wellness services by developing a centralized hub on campus. The nearly 18,000-square-foot facility on the ground floor of the Marvin Center brings student health and counseling center resources together in one common space, serving as the home for the university’s medical, mental health and health promotion and prevention services.
“The facility itself is really extraordinary,” Dr. Knapp said. “It really is a tribute to the leadership of our own student association over several administrations. It’s an extraordinarily valuable asset on our campus.”
The opening of Colonial Health Center served as the launch of Healthy GW—an initiative intended to unify wellness efforts across the university. In a presentation on student health and wellness in which he outlined trends in student health and improvements in resources on campus, Vice Provost and Dean of Student Affairs Peter Konwerski emphasized the return on investing in student resources like the Colonial Health Center.
“The last time I was here I was talking about career services,” he said. “That is an example, and Colonial Health is an example, of how when we invest we see the return quickly. Just this past week we were ranked the No. 1 school for internships by Princeton Review, which is a direct correlation to the investment the board and the university has put into career services across campus.
“These are examples of the ways the university supports its students.”
Dr. Konwerski emphasized that though students come to college with many challenges and pressures, GW has a long tradition of supporting student mental health and wellness. Concerns among college students include anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, he said, citing a 2013 survey of 380 counseling center directors conducted by the Association for University and College Counseling. Universities are, and must continue to be, protective environments because of student support services, he said, citing the CARE Network, academic and resident advisers as part of an engaged university community.
“We’ve seen individual appointments, psychiatry appointments, crisis after hours—all of those things have grown in the last years,” he said. “But GW has continued to respond. Offices like the counseling center are looking for people with specific backgrounds—in counseling of international students or veteran students, for example. We’ve hired trauma specialists, eating disorder specialists, nutrition specialists.”
The GW Peer Support Program, first introduced by Student Association President Nick Gumas at the October meeting of the Board of Trustees, would augment existing individual and group counseling services at GW. (William Atkins/GW Today).
The endorsement of the GW Peer Support Program, Dr. Konwerski continued, is another example of how the university community continues to respond to meet the needs of its students. First introduced by Student Association President Nick Gumas at the October trustees meeting, the peer support program received public support from Dr. Knapp at the January opening of the Colonial Health Center. The program would augment existing individual and group counseling services at GW, Dr. Konwerski said. Over the next 12 to 24 months, he said, the Division of Student Affairs will examine a plan to implement a pilot for the program.
Mr. Gumas, who began his remarks by thanking the board, Dr. Knapp and Dr. Konwerski for making the peer support program a reality, focused his remarks on sexual violence on campus.
GW released its unwanted sexual assault survey in late January, in which a majority of students—64 percent of undergraduate and 52 percent of graduate students—said the university should do more to raise awareness of sexual harassment issues. An analysis of narrative responses included in Appendix B of the survey report included suggestions among students that the university provide more student training on sexual assault and make it mandatory. Mr. Gumas said Colonial Inauguration would be the place for such expanded programming.
“We need to ensure that every student on campus is prepared, from day one, to know the severity of the issue of sexual violence, to be equipped with the necessary bystander intervention skills and to know how to hold their friends accountable when they behave inappropriately,” he said.
As a final resolution, the board approved transferring administrative responsibilities of the Ph.D. program in counseling to the Graduate School of Education and Human Development. The program previously existed under joint administration between GSEHD and the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.
